USB to serial converter working ? and USB hubs attached to usb-serial converter

If you did a search on the subject, it will take you several days to
read all that had been posted!

Newbie wrote:

If you did a search on the subject, it will take you several days to
read all that had been posted over the years!

Newbie wrote:

Thanks,

I guess I am really interested on the most recent experiences as I
would expect the bad piece of hardware to have been weeded out from the
list of offerings.

Jake.

Newbie wrote:


Jake, have a good read through the customer feedback on this one. Near the
bottom of the page.
http://www.dontronics.com/usb_232.html

Cheers Don...


--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:        http://www.e-dotcom.com/ecp.php?un=Dontronics

VoIP USB/RJ11 Use Any Phone http://www.dontronics.com/phoneconnector.html
USB to RS232 Converter that works  http://www.dontronics.com/usb_232.html

Newbie wrote:

<snip>

I have used a number of serial to USB converters that ranged from
generic unbranded ones to ones sold by Palm and Belkin.  The Palm one
has not worked reliably with anything but Palm devices.  The Belkin has
been very stable and I have not found a serial device (mostly with GPS
receivers on PDAs) that I could not get to work with it.

One warning, don't plug in any serial/USB converter until you read the
setup instructions.  Generally, you are required to run the driver
install before you plug the converter in and that seems to contribute to
success in setting it up and getting it working.  With the driver
installed, the converter should plug and play the first time it is
plugged in and found listed in the Port (COM & LPT) listing.

To see the range of types of and prices for serial to USB converters,
browse them in an eBay search.  You can see the variety without buying
anything.

I've not used any USB hubs yet, but I would proceed carefully on how
much load I put on a USB port.  I would probably look for a hub that had
a jack for a external 5V power source to let me take the load off of the
USB bus when connecting many devices or a single device with a heavy
draw.  The USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 protocols limit bus supplied power to 2.5
Watts (0.5A @ +5V) per port so when you use a hub that 0.5A limit would
have to cover all the devices on the hub.  That is not much power if you
add things like printers or external drives.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

I picked up a couple of USB-Serial converters today for $15, they worked
fine with no problems to several different devices. The drivers needed
to be installed but other than that just plug and play. I have also used
a USB to 4 serial port device without any problems. All of these were
plugged into a USB hub.

You may also want to consider a USB-Bluetooth device and then some
Serial-Bluetooth devices. There may be power issues for your sensors
depending on what they are, the setup is more complex and the hardware
more expensive but there is something to be said for wireless connections.


Newbie wrote:

--
email:newspost talon org
               @     .   .uk

Check out this thread in sci.electronics.misc

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.electronics.misc/browse_thread/th
read/7f83a4339536fa20/a5c54523792e67ce#a5c54523792e67ce

--
|\/|  /|  |2  |<
mehaase(at)sas(dot)upenn(dot)edu

Mark:

Do you have a title for this thread, I am reading this thread with
google groups betas and the whole address is cut in half.

Thanks,

Jake.

Mark Haase wrote:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.electronics.misc/browse_thread/th

Newbie wrote:


Cut and paste the two parts into the address bar in your browser.

Alternatively use this

http://tinyurl.com/68te2

Go to http://tinyurl.com  to see how to make long-winded URLs
USENET-friendly.
--
Phil Cook

I had real difficulties with MCT's USB-Serial cable. The problem was,
the cable would see GPS data coming in and think the GPS was a serial
mouse.

Usually, mouse detection is done by Windows, and there are several ways
to defeat it. With this cable, internal firmware did the mouse
detection. Using a USB sniffer, I could see the cable identified itself
with a different ID when the GPS was attached. Everytime I powered up,
I had to unplug the cable, unplug the GPS, plug in the cable, then plug
in the GPS. A real pain.

I tried to contact MCT, but never got a response.

In retropect, I should have tried playing with the RS-232 control
lines. It might be, if I tied the status lines high (or low, or to
DSR), the firmware might not get confused. Just a hunch. I ran out of
patience.

Outcome? The cable went into the trash and my Garmin GPS16 is idle. I
switched to GPS18s with USB.

  - John

(Note: the GPS 18 Usb is not compatible with many software packages.)

Newbie wrote:

John wrote:


Have a look at the feedback down the bottom of:
http://www.dontronics.com/usb_232.html
appears this works with the earlier Garmin's.

Don...


--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:        http://www.e-dotcom.com/ecp.php?un=Dontronics

VoIP USB/RJ11 Use Any Phone http://www.dontronics.com/phoneconnector.html
USB to RS232 Converter that works  http://www.dontronics.com/usb_232.html

Are you sure you only have one usb port on the notebook??

Anway, I use a keyspan to drive my gps, program scanners, etc. I had to
return a Belkin and IOGear.

I suppose you could get a multiport keyspan and avoid the hub.
http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA49w/

Keyspan devices have a few modes. I had to run mine in a hardware
compatible mode or something like that, where it generated IRQs, but
this was to program a scanner. The stock mode worked  fine on the gps.
I'm a bit fuzzy on this because I set it up a few years ago and haven't
had any problems with the set up since, so it is not fresh in my mind.

wrote:


Go to ebay and get a used Edgeport USB-to-serial converter for
~$30 (4 or 8 port). Lot of good reviews on this product. You can
also get the single port adapters. The top one below can be had
on ebay for $10 and works well for my uses. The bottom one below
with the screwed up square looking DB9 connector (with attach
screws!) is pretty much junk (I can't get to put out a signal on
the tx pin).

http://tinyurl.com/63tto
http://store1.yimg.com/I/cputopiaonline_1834_8847806